Oxymoron: Murdoch Media Ethics

Having your ethics challenged by a Rupert Murdoch-owned media outlet is like having your honesty challenged by Bernie Madoff.

Take the recent story about CNN hiring former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned from the office in 2008 following revelations that he had patronized prostitutes.

When rumors of the CNN hire began circulating weeks ago, Fox pundit Cal Thomas remarked on the Murdoch-owned network (Fox News Watch, 5/29/10), “Clearly, CNN is going after the adultery demographic.” When the story broke, Murdoch’s New York Post (6/24/10) scoffed at the hire with a piece quoting anonymous sources saying it signaled the “destruction of a brand” and showed that CNN had “lost the struggle for its soul.” Last year, the Murdoch paper (9/2/09) scoffed at the very notion that Spitzer should ever show his face in public life again with a storyheadlined “You Can’t Keep a Bad Man Down.”

Still not convinced that of the ethical vacuousness of Murdoch outlets? Consider this: Murdoch’s New York Post gave a weekly column (e.g. 12/13/09) to Ashley Dupre, who the paper’s editors introduced as “the former escort who brought down Gov. Eliot Spitzer.”

Perhaps the key to Dupre’s acceptability is hinted at in the Post‘s report about Spitzer’s new CNN job, where she is quoted saying everyone “deserves a second chance,” but adding, “As for the show, if it’s not on Fox, I’m not watching it.”

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Senior Media Analyst and Co-producer of CounterSpin Steve Rendall is FAIR's senior analyst. He is co-host of CounterSpin, FAIR's national radio show. His work has received awards from Project Censored, and has won the praise of noted journalists such as Les Payne, Molly Ivins and Garry Wills. He is co-author of The Way Things Aren't: Rush Limbaugh's Reign of Error (The New Press, 1995, New York City). Rendall has appeared on dozens of national television and radio shows, including appearances on CNN, C-SPAN, CNBC, MTV and Fox Morning News. He was the subject of a profile in the New York Times (5/19/96), and has been quoted on issues of media and politics in publications such as the Chicago Tribune, Washington Post and New York Times. Rendall contributed stories to the International Herald Tribune from France, Spain and North Africa; worked as a freelance writer in San Francisco; and worked as an archivist collecting historical material on the Spanish Civil War and the volunteers who fought in it. Rendall studied philosophy and chemistry at San Francisco State University, the College of Notre Dame and UC Berkeley.

Peter Kelly,in middle age when I knew him when he was working in the PR section of the Steelworkers Union in Sydney, told how Rupert Murdoch was charged with “attempted rape”. Murdoch was a young man when it happened in Perth, his home town. Kelly in his younger days had come to Sydney and co-founded a features network which was flourishing. Murdoch wanted to buy the network, and when Kelly refused, began to attack Kelly’s business. Kelly, a journalist, found a charge sheet in a Perth police station which showed Rupert Murdoch had been charged with “attempted rape”. The case was closed but Kelly got a xerox copy of the charge sheet and mailed it to Murdoch. The Murdoch attacks on Peter’s business stopped. Peter visited Perth later and found the charge sheet was missing at the police station. Surprise! Bob baker l.a.

Good story, but, apart from the Bob Baker notes, hardly new to some of us.

Deep behind the news, and never covered, is the ability of many Americans to believe contradictory things at the same time. (Same the whole world over, but this is where we are.) For example, Obama is a socialist, an islamic terrorist, and takes his orders from the Rothschilds.

Chris Matthews recently gave some poll results re E. Kagan and her acceptance by “the American people.” But Matthews knows that these “people” include many die-hard Republicans, who include many who believe Obama is not a legitimate president, and others who believe that the world is no more than 6k to 10k years old. Why would Matthews, or anyone, expect a sensible opinion from such people on anything to do with Obama?

The hypocricy of Fox and other right-wing media would be astounding if it were new. And not just media–big corporations and their shills in Congress. That includes BP right now, as they tout all the wonderful work they do to clean up the gulf; La pols who want to continue deep drilling in denial of what is killing jobs and animals in the gulf; Big Tobacco execs who see their US share falling and so work to export disease and death; not to forget munitions manufacturers, particularly of land mines.

Fear is used to control the people, fear and ignorance. But the people are willing dupes. How do we begin to change that?

Excellent comparison – you can also point to the constant stream of stories that Fox avoids, if there is any way it might hurt it’s bottom line, ie, unflattering news about a sponsoring company or a country that Murdoch wants to extend his media empire into.

Spitzer was actually a very good NY Attorney General – he literally spotted the toxic mortgage scams several years ago, and attempted, with other AGs, to implement state-by-state regulations to avert the calamity, but the Bush Administration sued Spitzer to keep his paws off their scam.

We now have the results of Bush’s forcefully de-regulated mess, melting our economy from every side.

(Spitzer was in DC addressing this problem to Congress, and had an op-ed on the mortgage scams published in the WaPo the very week the FBI leaked info to the NYT, which brought Spitzer down.) If anyone does, he certainly deserves a “second chance”.

Does this Article set out to prove that there is a lot of hypocrisy both right and left?Or just on the right?Actually it doesn’t prove anything but it does throw some dirt….at the right of course.Same thing with every blogger above.Yet what is the big big big story of the moment?Al Gore and the charges against him of sexual assault! Yet Not one word about that.How strange.How so very strange.And he was your presidential candidate was he not?Yet not one word.How did you all miss that?Cable trouble?
Ok folks.Its all FOX causing the worlds problems.Stick pins in your FOX dolls.What a waste of breath.

[…] the new program Parker Spitzer, which is co-hosted by liberal-leaning former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and conservative columnist Kathleen Parker. Stelter writes: The ratings for CNN‘s latest […]